The Jeep Compass is a small SUV that can handle light off‑road adventures and daily driving. It’s made by the company that owns Jeep, a brand known for rugged vehicles.
Car
Chrysler minivan
A minivan is a large, boxy car with sliding doors that can seat many people. Chrysler made several models of these vans in the 1990s and early 2000s.
OEM means the company that first makes a car or part. For example, the parts you buy for your car might come from the same company that built the whole vehicle.
When there are supply chain shortages, it means the factories can't get all the parts they need on time. This can delay car production and make cars more expensive.
The Jeep Cherokee is a small SUV that many people buy for its good handling and off‑road ability. It’s a common choice for families who want something bigger than a sedan but not too big.
The Dodge Charger is a big car that Dodge makes. Here it’s the first electric version of that car, meaning it runs on batteries instead of gasoline.
LIVE
Hi everyone and welcome to the December 19th, 2025 episode of the Automotive News Canada podcast. I'm your host, Greg Lason, the digital and mobile editor at Automotive News Canada. Coming to you from just outside Windsor, Ontario, Automotive Capital of Canada. Today on the show I speak with New Stellantis Canada President Trevor Longley. He talks about his new role, what he learned while at ESAN Canada, he also discusses affordability, product, pricing,
tariffs, Canadian manufacturing, and more. But first, look at some of the top Canadian automotive stories of the week. Canadian sales of hybrid vehicles continue to surge. Statistics Canada says that in the third quarter gasoline electric hybrids accounted for 12.4% of light-duty vehicle registrations. That's up from 9.6% over the same quarter of 2024. Plug-in hybrids largely held their ground. They claimed three-point
8% market share last quarter. That's compared to 4.1% in 2024. Battery electric vehicles were the big loser. They accounted for 5.5% of registrations in the third quarter this year, down more than half from 11.6% in the same period the year prior.
Registrations across all powertrains totaled 484,415 vehicles in the quarter. Essentially flat against 483,588 from a year ago.
In executive news, dealership group Otto Canada Inc. this week appointed a new chief operating officer. The job went to longtime H. Greg Warrer executive Fade Boris.
Otto Canada says Boris will be responsible for driving performance across the group 64 new vehicle dealerships in Canada.
Boris replaced former COO Brian Feldman, who stepped down from the role in November.
And finally on the manufacturing front, there still appears to be hope for Stellantis Brampton assembly plant.
In a recent news release, touting the hiring of 1,000 people in Windsor, the automaker reiterated that Brampton is on, quote, operational pause.
The automaker announced in October it was moving planned production of its Jeep compass from Brampton to Illinois.
All retooling at the Ontario plant is stalled. Says Stellantis in a statement to automotive news Canada.
The plant is not closing. Stellantis remains focused on constructive engagement with the government to support a strong, resilient automotive manufacturing sector in Canada.
Sam Fierranney, vice president of global forecasting at auto forecast solutions, says a Chrysler brand model is planned for that plant in the late 2027.
But he says the automaker is unlikely to discuss it publicly until after the US and Canada agreed to a new trade deal.
And that's a look at some of the top Canadian automotive stories of the week coming up. I speak with new Stellantis Canada president Trevor Longley.
Trevor, thanks for joining me on the podcast this week. It's much appreciated.
Oh, happy to be with you Greg. Good to see you again.
Yeah, for sure. It's been a while. Let's start here. New job. Congratulations. Of course.
I wonder what does being Canadian mean when you're in a role leading the Canadian arm of an automaker?
Well, first of all, Canadian being Canadian means something special just on its own, but I would say, you know.
It's hard to disconnect the history of Chrysler in Canada from Canada. Like, you know, it's very, very much viewed as an American brand, but it was founded 100 years ago in Canada at the same time.
Like it's literally days after it was founded in the US. There was the Canadian arm.
And so like it is a part of Canadian history. It's something I remember fondly growing up like literally every other driveway had a Chrysler minivan in it.
You know that we would load in and parents would cart us around to sports and all of this stuff. And so, you know, for me, you know, Chrysler is an important part of Canadian history automotive history and as an automotive enthusiast and somebody grew up in this country.
It's an honor to run an organization that's had this kind of industrial footprint print and this kind of legacy in this country.
You come to Stellantis from ESEN 10 years there. What did you learn from that 10 year that you bring to Stellantis in Canada?
Well, I think it like you could work for any OEM and you'd see that it's it's a volatile time in the automotive industry.
The like you know 10 last 10 years I would say most people say there was at least five once in a century type of things that happen with COVID and supply chain shortages and all kinds of crazy stuff.
So I think that it really helped to teach me resilience. You know things are you know not always going to go perfectly.
You need to be creative about finding solutions and then super focused. And I would say like I got a real good education on on how to kind of work through so you know turbulent environment.
And what is essentially you know a challenger brand at Nissan and and I don't see you know the the scientist brands being much different like we are a challenger brand and have a real opportunity to grow.
And so I'm hoping to take the learnings from there and apply many of them here.
I mean in this day and age a lot of dealers have more than one store but there will be some dealers who haven't experienced you as a leader yet. What kind of leader are you in these roles?
Well you know I hope that if you ask somebody who's dealt with me for a long time it's collaborative focused I don't say yes to everything but I tried to say yes to as many things as I possibly can.
As long as we're staying focused on the task at hand and we need to be very clear that in complex operations you need to simplify the business and the more you can do that the more you can move in a line direction and I think you know most dealers that I've dealt with through my time.
I've seen that as kind of the path of Trevor and I hope that those that haven't yet had the opportunity to kind of work closely with me will will be optimistic about fact I'm going to try and simplify the business here and make sure we're focused on the things that matter most.
Have you had a chance to talk to dealers across the country and pockets and regions and if you have what are you hearing so far from dealers.
Yeah I've been a both so I mean I literally my first day on the job I flew to Edmonton to be with our dealer council that was my first order of business and it was kind of lucky in terms of timing but I think it's also.
You know you need to hear from the voice of dealers which are the face of our brands every single day across Canada and what have I been hearing well you know obviously we've gone from a company that at one time was the number one commercial sales organization in the country.
And it's not anywhere near that right now and so dealers are thriving for throughput their sustainability depends on that.
And really those are where the conversations are is like how do we get ourselves back on the footing and on a growth trajectory because it's been many years now of share decline volume decline and you know we have to change that to or that trajectory and we're going to get real focused on getting it done.
I want to talk about getting back to that leadership in the market you know as a kid you know when I was like eight years old the K car was the affordable car when I was a teenager in high school it was the dog shadow it was a neon.
I look at prices across the brands and I just happen to pull some of the Jeep Cherokee cheapest Jeep at 42 three the grand caravan cheapest Chrysler product at 50,000 Ram 1500 51,000 is it safe to say that Stellantis appears to be lacking an affordable entry level vehicle at just about every brand.
We say that there's no question we're missing some options right now from an affordability perspective but those are coming quickly and so I would say like the big opportunity for us is obviously that what we call mid size some call small SUV which is the largest segment probably 25% of the overall industry volume and we've been out of that segment for two years and that's an affordability segment and Cherokee is on route and we'll start selling that in the new year and so we're pretty excited about that but those are the kind of examples where.
We do have a portfolio products that are coming to meet those challenges the other thing too is obviously coming out of you know COVID etc where we saw prices start to elevate because of supply chain shortages etc we've done a lot over the last couple years to kind of right size the pricing and incentive strategies to make sure that we were competitive in the market
and I think we've done a pretty good job but we've got more to do but I think it all starts with making sure that we have a competitive vehicle in the number one segment.
I don't know how much you can tell me about this but you know all names are some products but Ford Maverick Ford Ranger GMC Canyon Chevy Colorado Toyota Tacoma I'm sure you know where I'm going with this are their plans for Stellantis to compete in that mid size
and small size pickup segments.
It's a hot segment that is worth a look as well.
That's fair enough and I mean it seemed and you mentioned it when you when you talk about the compact and subcompact SUVs is that the new entry level if you will for not just
Stellantis but for all automakers in North America is that the North American entry point now is it a subcompact or compact SUV the days of small cars are over I would assume.
Yeah I wouldn't say they're dead certainly like you know come from a different brand that had an offering there and certainly there's a few others that do quite well in that small compact car segment.
So I wouldn't say it's dead it's a great affordability segment but it but it's there's no doubt when you look at the volume of the market and the trajectory of time that it is small compact crossovers and SUVs that are the entry level for most brands.
And it's you know who's a saw to make sure that we've got you know value packed content or you know the right content to get to the price points that consumers need in a market that demands affordability.
I had a question and I loved how you started you're very first answer or you know early on in this conversation because I once had a dealer tell me no one ever says I'm going to the Stellantis dealer no one ever says I'm going to the ram dealership they always say I'm going to the Chrysler dealership that brand is iconic and you spoke of you know Chrysler generally in Canada from the beginning what can you tell dealers about the future.
Of the Chrysler brand because that dealer was concerned that if that brand is killed it sort of kills the legacy of all the other brands because it is just so widely known as the Chrysler store or the Chrysler dealership.
Yeah well so I mean here in Canada it's one of our lifelines obviously it's a big part of what we do here in Windsor is assembling the minivans and it's a big part of our legacy there I would say Chrysler I think has a bright future is a brand with a lot of cache it is certainly connected to everything that we are in this country.
And then you know maybe I'll just say that you know the conversations in the company at least that I've been a part of in the first call it two months of being on the job have all been kind of proactive in moving in the right direction of what does Chrysler need to be in the future and how do we bring the right products to market so you know I don't think there should be a fear of that going away I think it I think it has another data fight for sure.
And speaking of Windsor this week Stellantis announced a few hundred workers from Brampton are transferring to Windsor that you've hired more than 1000 for the third shift what is driving the need for that third shift is it minivan demand is it muscle car demand what is it that requires the third shift which of those products is sort of leading the way the answer yeah it's kind of both and so like obviously we're ramping up with with the new charger which we are you know feel like.
I mean obviously we've had a you know a dearth of that muscle car performance car for for a little bit here and there's some pent up demand and we think that we've got a real winner with this with this car both obviously for Canada but also for for our partners in the US as well where it's a big market that segment so we are ramping up to meet that eventual demand we do you know continue to see minivan being a real opportunity for for us here both.
In Canada and the US and so we're pretty bullish on the volumes of those those two car lines in announcing that news of the new hires and the transfers from Brampton there was a line in the news release and this is the journalist in me that jumped out of me and it said Brampton is on an operational pause does this mean that it's guaranteed Brampton which has been idle now since the end of 2023 gets a new product at some point what should someone.
Can you read into those those words of operational pause.
Yeah I think what what everybody should read into as we've been on a pause since February we continue to be on a pause now as we try and work through to understand what the future of the landscape in in Canada looks like.
I can tell and I don't know whether this provides assurance to those employees in Brampton I hope it does at least that we're working hard on a solution for Brampton which includes production going down the line in Brampton.
Well there's no doubt that you know external economics and forces that are kind of outside of of this country or our company are making you know production more difficult especially when you're a net exporter in terms of product but the reality is is that you know the Brampton and frankly wins are assembly pants of traditionally been fantastic plants for us and we love to find a way to make them productive pieces of the organization going forward.
We see Brampton as a as a part of our future and we're working on solutions to make that happen.
The government has rolled back tariff remissions for Stellantis US tariffs remain in place.
What is all of that doing to the pricing strategy of product in Canada in particular.
Well I think like for us you know we need to be I would say competitive for the market and so we're focused on making sure that the products remain priced appropriately relative to the competitive set.
I think when you when you start to look at where we sit with tariffs and where the remissions policies sit we understand the position of the government.
Our position is is that we've invested almost eight billion dollars in the last few years in this country we're adding a third shift at Windsor we've you know we have our joint venture at next star with LG on the battery side which is higher to 1100 new employees there we've added engineering and research resources with 600 engineers at our ARDC so we continue to invest in Canada.
And you know we hope that you know that is well understood by both the public and the political apparatus that we're not walking away from Canada we're continuing to invest and we continue to see it as a bright spot of our future.
Some politicians and some former auto executives who used to work in Canada have suggested that tariffs are here to stay in some way shape or form and some of those have suggested that that 10% might just be the going rate on auto imports into the United States.
If that's the case can Canadian auto manufacturing survive.
Well I think kind of what I've been saying is that never underestimate Canadians in terms of our ability to find creative solutions to make industry survive and so the automotive industry has been here like building cars in Ontario for 100 years.
We've been here doing that for 100 years you can see this picture behind me that's Windsor assembly plant and you know so lots of things have happened over those 100 years we've had major trade changes auto pack NAFTA then Kuzma and we've always found a way to make it work here.
I'm not saying it's not going to be challenging for the for the marketplace here and that there won't be changes of dynamics of what's produced here or how it's produced here.
But the reality is that I'm optimistic that we can have a Canadian automotive manufacturing footprint in the future and you know that's what I'm getting out of bed in the morning to work in awards.
Last subject this one I mean it's been a roller coaster for a four year now almost electrification.
What is Stellantis Canada's view on electrification are are you as an automaker still on a path to electrification do you change gears and look at hybrids more just what is the future of electrification at Stellantis at this point.
Yeah I think you know what what everybody in the industry whether they're saying it or not is is finding is that you need to follow the customer and where the customer goes is where we should go.
Obviously we want to push that a bit and making sure that our you know our products are as environmentally friendly as it's humanly possible.
But there's no question that consumers are running the hybrid as the as kind of I'll call the base case scenario and we're going to follow them there and so for example the new Cherokee that's coming as a hundred percent hybrid in that course segment and so there's an you know another few manufacturers are following that same trend and I think more and more you're going to see that.
Because you know emissions needs and you know all of that stuff's not going to go away in the long term it may change in terms of the trend of the industry but it's not going to go away and then as we talk about like full electric.
I just think it's going to happen a bit slower I do think that that is the end case and I you know and I think you know automakers have made massive investments in trying to get there.
And you know we're going to continue to invest in that but it has to happen at the right pace that the consumers ready for if it doesn't it's going to be a drag on the on the overall industry.
Would the automakers have made those investments anyway but maybe have spread them out over a longer period of time they were just forced to make them sooner because of policy in Canada in California in BC in Europe where they were demanding electrification.
Do automakers believe in electrification but would just rather have a runway of their own.
I don't know if it's runway of of their own and you know I can't speak across different markets but like the reality is is that we need a set of policies that both encourage the adoption and you know rather than maybe are more punitive in terms of the path and.
Before we get charging infrastructure in place and make it beneficial for consumers to purchase and test EV and by the way if you're driven EV like you know consumers that have been driven EV they're fantastic vehicles they're absolutely amazing.
And so it's not the vehicle that's the issue it is charging infrastructure and frankly cost and cost is part of that you know being an emerging technology.
It comes with a cost that will come down over time and so I think as we follow the trends of cost coming down over time charging infrastructure getting right that will follow a natural path and consumers will choose those products.
I don't necessarily think that we need to be compelled to do that there's you know a ton of battery electric vehicle options in the marketplace for consumers now if they so choose to do that and I encourage them to go that route.
For us we'll continue to make investments where it makes sense right now I believe we're the only company making a battery electric vehicle in Canada which is the the Dodge charger and it's a compelling vehicle super cool but you know it I think it speaks to the fact that we're putting big investments or continue to put big investments about that but they're the pace is changing for sure.
Trevor thanks for joining me this week on the podcast I appreciate it.
Thank you very much.
I'd like to thank Trevor for his time.
If you'd like to be a guest on the show have a suggestion or simply want to comment email me at glasonatautonews.com
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That does it for this episode of the automotive news Canada podcast we hope you'll join us next time so long everybody.
About this episode
Trevor Longley, the new President of Stellantis Canada, shares insights on his new role and the challenges facing the automotive industry in Canada. He discusses the surge in hybrid vehicle sales, the need for more affordable options in Stellantis' lineup, and the operational status of the Brampton assembly plant. Longley emphasizes the importance of adapting to market demands, particularly in electrification and pricing strategies, while also reflecting on the legacy of Chrysler in Canada. The episode provides a comprehensive look at the current landscape of the Canadian automotive market.
Hybrid sales surge; AutoCanada’s new COO; hope for Stellantis Brampton. Plus, Stellantis Canada President Trevor Longley on his new role and what he learned while at Nissan Canada. He also discusses affordability, product, tariffs, Canadian manufacturing, and more.
